Pacific Northwest

Gorge waste managers Hood River Garbage/The Dalles Disposal and Tri-County Hazardous Waste and Recycling Program are still coming to terms with how a Jan. 1 recycling policy change is affecting local programs.

At a Feb. 6 meeting of the Hood River Port Commission, Kevin Greenwood, project director for the replacement of the Hood River-White Salmon Interstate Bridge, invited Steve Siegel, of Siegel Consulting LLC, to guide the first Port Commission review of the draft administrative rules that would govern the public-private partnerships related to the replacement. This was the first draft of the rules that the Port of Hood River must establish, according to the Oregon State Legislature, which opened the possibility for public-private partnerships on infrastructure in 2016.

Les Gardipee of Browns Creek Road, southwest of The Dalles, fielded a suspicious phone call Monday afternoon from someone claiming to represent DISH Networks and is concerned that other residents may end up getting scammed.

SALEM — An effort to insert an amendment in Oregon's Constitution making health care a right died amid concerns by lawmakers that it would expose the state to lawsuits. Such an amendment would have been unprecedented among U.S. states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Dell Road, a local access road that connects Highway 30 with State Road near Mosier, is in such a state of disrepair that those who rely on it for access to their homes have turned to the county for maintenance support. However, the county does not have resources to help, explained Arthur Smith, Wasco County public works director on Feb. 21. He asked for the county board to help come up with a feasible solution to the problem.

SALEM — Ted Ferrioli, the Senate Republican leader in Oregon until he stepped down in January, was presented with a beautiful wool blanket by leaders of Native American tribes as a parting gift, throwing him into an ethical quandary. The issue confronting Ferrioli, who represented a huge swath of eastern Oregon covering canyonlands, mountains and high desert with cowboys, loggers and Native Americans among his constituents, is detailed in an Oregon Government Ethics Commission report.

High above Interstate 84 west of Hood River, constructions crews were hard at work Friday assembling pieces of an over-land bridge that will reconnect abandoned stretches of the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail. Drivers will see delays in the construction area, starting Friday, Feb. 16.

State building codes officials were finally equipped to answer local stakeholders’ questions at a meeting Tuesday evening, where they assured local contractors that the state building codes division would operate as similarly to MCCOG as possible.

A planned oil train terminal that has drawn controversy in some Gorge communities suffered its heaviest blow yet when Washington Gov. Jay Inslee denied the project’s permit Monday, siding with state environmental regulators. The Tesoro-Savage terminal that was proposed for the Columbia River shore in Vancouver would have boosted the number of fossil fuel trains rolling through the Gorge.